Artist Steve Banks and I are participating in Shared Creations, an exhibit at Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago. The collection is on display through October 2nd, 2015. Every piece on display is a collaboration between a pair of artists. Some of the artists have been working together for many years. For Steve and I, this was our first project together, started just this year.

Photograph: Jim Kirkhoff

This first piece was started Steve and finished by me. I had an incredibly hard time working into his painting and ended covering almost all of it. I never realized how controlling I am with my work. Life lesson. This piece was a hot mess, created with automotive pigments (which are incredibly shiny and glittery, in a completely non-crafty way) epoxy resin, oil paint, and graphite. I've also been incorporating industrial, red reflective tape into pieces lately. I thought this piece would never come together until I thought of a title so appropriate and true and raw that it made the work all make sense: Worst Year of My Life.

Photograph: Jim Kirkhoff

This piece was started by me and finished by Steve. I love Steve's raw, carved frames. He left it for me to paint and I chose black, liking the charred feeling. I started the piece with drawings of coral and a hive I found in the woods. (The coral was given to my daughter by her third grade teacher and taken by me for drawing...) Steve got into examining the hive mind and suburbia, using his more graphic style. This piece is more spare than I'm used to but I like the juxtaposition of our different styles.

Both of us work large and both of these pieces are 4'x6'. My car was totaled the other week and I thought it might be an opportunity to get a nicer car... but I have no choice but to drive a shitty minivan. It's the best thing to schlep the work around.